Ranked #3 in popularity, social work is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in Indiana to determine which ones were the best for social work students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 758 master's degrees in social work to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Social Work School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of social work for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to social work students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other social work students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt social work students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized social work related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for social work students working on their master's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Indiana list to help you make the college decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Social Work in Indiana
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for social work students seeking a a master's degree.
Indiana University - Purdue University - Indianapolis is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in social work. Located in the large city of Indianapolis, IUPUI is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the social work program earn about $49,659 in their early career salary.
Every student who is interested in a master's degree in social work needs to check out Indiana Wesleyan University - National & Global. Located in the rural area of Marion, IWU is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Social Work master's degree recipients from Indiana Wesleyan University - National & Global receive an earnings boost of about $2,845 above the average income of social work graduates.
Indiana University - Bloomington is a great choice for individuals interested in a master's degree in social work. IU Bloomington is a very large public university located in the small city of Bloomington.
Soon after graduation, social work master's recipients typically earn around $49,230 at the beginning of their careers.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of social work for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
